


Blush

by thalia_cinder_03



Series: All of Stucky [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blushing, Blushing Bucky Barnes, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Stucky - Freeform, natasha is the wingman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26474905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thalia_cinder_03/pseuds/thalia_cinder_03
Summary: Bucky has a thing for Steve, but doesn't want him to know about it. Unfortunately, Bucky's body and his blood don't want him to keep that secret.-----Bucky Barnes blushes a lot.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov
Series: All of Stucky [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933795
Comments: 7
Kudos: 199





	Blush

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written stucky before but I thought this idea was cute.

After the Avengers were able to save Bucky from the grasp of Hydra, and he was declared a safe individual to be around, Steve had insisted it would only be right to let Bucky join them in the tower. After all, it was highly certain that no place would hire a hundred year old world war two veteren/ex-assassin, so how could he really be expected to live on his own. 

After the initial awkwardness of, hey nice to meet you, oh wait we already met while I was brainwashed and tried to kill you, he’d had an easy time settling down in the tower. He’d basically analyzed all of the Avengers and knew quite a bit about them for only meeting them a short while ago. Steve was Steve, Bucky already knew basically everything he needed to know about him, though the shift in the power dynamic was something he didn’t know if he’d ever get used to. Sam was alright, kind of an average dude if you asked him but he was a veteren so Bucky obviously respected him, and related to his rants about pillows.

Tony was sort of intimidating, he always had something to say and usually Bucky didn’t understand it. Pepper was nice though, and Tony was usually more bearable when she was around. Bruce was quiet, aside from when he occasionally blew up something in the lab, then he would spend the rest of the day arguing about wanting to move back to some village that he must’ve lived in before he came here. Natasha was a wild card, Bucky couldn’t read her which was probably what she wanted considering who she was and the circumstances of their meeting. She sort of scared him, she looked like she was constantly analysing him. 

Overall, life in the tower was good. That was, until Bucky began remembering things. They weren’t memories, he’d seemed to have collected all the important ones, they were other things. Feelings, emotions, gut reactions. Things that confused him so much that he’d decided he’d rather just ignore them. Unfortunately his face didn’t seem to get the memo. 

\----------------------------

Bucky wandered into the Avengers kitchen later than he normally did, but still earlier than most of his teammates. The only ones up were Natasha and Sam. Sam always got up early to go on his morning run with Steve, and Natasha was always on alert so she woke up whenever anyone else woke up. Steve had asked him a few times if Bucky wanted to join them, but first of all he’d rather avoid Steve as certain memories of his came back to him, and also it was way too early. There was also the issue of Steve potentially coming into his room so early in the morning. 

“Hey Bucky,” Sam called from the table, where he was spreading cream cheese on his bagel. “You’re up late.”

He groaned, grabbing the largest mug he could find from the cupboard and slamming it down on the counter, hard enough to make a point and a loud bang but not so hard that he broke yet another mug out of frustration. He grabbed the coffee pot and poured himself the entire rest of the pot, not adding anything else to it. He made his way over to the table, sitting down next to Sam. 

“You look like hell,” Natasha said from across the table between bites of her bagel, gesturing towards his long hair that was sitting wrong atop his head. “It’s not even that early.”

Bucky gave her a glare after a long sip of his coffee. “It’s eight in the morning.”

“Weren’t you in the army?” she asked, offering him a plate with a sesame seed bagel on it. 

“That was like a hundred years ago,” he answered, accepting the plate. “Now I’m a guy who lives off the wealth of a billionaire and occasionally beats up aliens and sometimes other humans.” He had begun living at the tower with the team only a week or so ago, but he could get used to living off Tony’s wealth, despite the awkwardness he faced with Howard’s son.

Natasha laughed, and Sam shook his head commenting that Bucky technically wasn’t wrong. They finished their breakfast, over light conversation, before Steve walked out of the elevator and into the room. Bucky tensed up, glancing down at his bagel and shifting his feet around underneath the table. He looked up at Natasha, who had an eyebrow raised at him in all his discomfort. 

“Hey Cap,” Sam called, “where’ve you been?”

“Talking to Fury,” Steve said, walking over to the counter. “There’s been some potentially dangerous activity in Los Angeles but he doesn’t think it’s suspicious enough for us to check out just yet.” He grabbed a bagel from the bowl on the table, beginning to eat it whole, without anything on it while standing behind Bucky. “Just grabbing a snack and then I gotta get back to it.”

“Why on earth does Fury think you’re qualified to analyze a threat?” Natasha asked, still looking at Bucky with some confusion.

“Yeah,” Bucky agreed, finding his voice. “No offence Steve but you’ve never really been… I don't know how I should say this…”

“The smart one?” she suggested. “A geek? Someone who knew what a computer was before a year ago?”

“Yes,” he affirmed, “very that.”

“Shut up,” Steve said. He pushed his hand through Bucky’s hair to push his head over, unknowingly driving Bucky insane. “It’s not like you’re any better, Buck.” 

Bucky could feel heat rising to his face (and other places that he was going to try not to think about), no matter how much he tried to push it away. He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to hold an entirely regular composure. He was glad Steve was standing behind him and couldn’t see his face, though he didn’t catch that luck with Natasha. She gave him a look that told him she’d hear about it later, even if he didn’t want to tell her. 

“Well this was fun,” Sam said, interrupting the awkward tension that he was probably oblivious to. “I’ve gotta get down to the VA, but I’ll be back at…” he checked his watch, “sometime around six.”

Steve joined Sam and the two guys left towards the elevator, leaving Bucky looking down at his food and Natasha staring down at him. 

“You’re blushing,” Natasha said, brow furrowed in slight confusion.

“Don’t,” he said, trying to force his trademark ‘Winter Soldier’ voice out, but he was so focused on willing the blood in his body to go back to it’s normal distribution throughout his body so it came out more like a murmur. “Shut the fuck up,” he tried again. 

“Oh my god, you’re blushing! What are you blushing about?” she asked. Then, her mouth fell open and her eyes went wide in realization. “Steve?!” she whisper yelled.

“Natasha I swear I will kill you…” This was something he did not want to explore right now or ever. It had been three days or so since he started feeling this way and something inside him told him that this was not the first time he had felt this way. The feeling of wanting to be in Steve’s arms, wanting to have Steve in his… 

“Hey, hey, hey,” someone interrupted, lazy footsteps indicating it was definitely Tony. “It’s too early for death threats and murderous rage.”

“Oh, you are so in love with him,” Natasha laughed. “I can’t believe this!”

“No! These are factless observations!” he argued.

“Wait, wait,” Tony interrupted again. “Who’s in love? And who are they in love with?”

Bucky slammed his head down between his arms on the table. “Leave me alone,” he grumbled, not wanting to think about the way he missed having Steve’s hand in his long hair. 

“Which murderous assassin is in love?” Tony asked, sitting down in the chair Sam had been sitting in. 

Bucky got up with a start, leaving the room faster than Natasha or Tony could say anything. He got to his room quickly, locking the door with force. He fell onto his bed with a sigh, knowing that he was gonna spend the rest of the day staring at the ceiling, thinking quietly inside his own head.

He was so fucking in love with Steve. 

\---------------------------

Bucky shoved a towel into a water bucket, soaking his dirt covered hands in the process. “Honestly, Stevie, you need to stop with this.” Steve had tried to fight some guy in the alley near their apartment, and had obviously been losing before Bucky stepped in.

He turned around to see Steve, his tiny Steve, sitting on the ratted old couch, covered in scrapes and bruises. There was a ring forming around his right eye in a mixed purple/red colour where he’d clearly been punched hard. Bucky pressed the towel under Steve’s eye, wondering how anyone could ever look into those blue eyes and still sock him. 

“Buck,” Steve complained, though he didn’t shy away from the cold towel. “I can hold my own out there, you don’t need to come ‘round and save me all the time.”

“Steve,” he sighed. “You coulda gotten really hurt if I hadn’t walked by. Those trash cans aren’t gonna save you when they got two feet on you.”

“Ya,” Steve said defeatedly, “I know, I know.”

Bucky dabbed the towel under his eye a few more times, and then moved on to dab away at the other scratches on his face. It broke him to see Steve, his little Steve, all beaten up like this, and most importantly feeling defeated. 

“Hey,” Steve said, cracking a small smile. “Maybe some girls’ll wanna dance with me when they see this shiner.”

Bucky gave the biggest laugh he could force, trying for a convincing sound. One thing he loved about Steve being so small was that he got Steve all to himself. It was selfish, he knew it, all Steve wanted was for girls to notice him, and they were stupid not to, but it meant that after a night out, Steve would be coming home with him, not some random girl. It would be him and Steve on that couch, cuddling to keep warm and he could almost pretend that he had Steve, and that Steve loved him back. 

There was a knock on the door, pulling Bucky out of his half dream, half memory. “Buck?” Steve called from the other side, jiggling the handle. “You in there?”

Bucky shot up from his collapsed position on the bed, and jumped over to the door, unlocking it and sticking his head out. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Oh. Well I’m back,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck in a way that reminded Bucky of when he was smaller. “Why’d you lock the door?”

“Oh, umm…” Bucky stammered, thinking of what would qualify for locking the door that wouldn’t sound weird or suspicious. He may have been back with Steve, and he hadn’t had any type of episode that should’ve made Steve worried, but it was Steve, so of course he was worried. “Just hiding from Natasha.” He figured there would be so many reasons one would want to hide from Natasha that it wouldn’t raise too many questions. It also wasn’t technically a lie, just half the truth. 

“Makes sense,” Steve understood, grinning a bit. “Nat grilling you?”

“Sort of,” he answered, trying to quickly change the subject. “How was hanging out with Fury this morning? He doesn’t sound like much of a morning person.”

“Nah,” Steve brushed it off. “He’s pretty much the same all the time.”

Bucky nodded, trying to make the conversation flow naturally. Making conversation with someone he was just romanticizing the past self of in his head was proving to be a difficult task. 

“Natasha and I were going to go to the park and grab lunch somewhere after, want to join us?” 

Bucky looked back into his room to the clock on his night stand. Had he really been thinking about Steve for three hours? God he needed to get a life. 

“Buck?” Steve asked, when Bucky hadn’t answered. 

“Oh,” Bucky jumped out of his head again. “Yeah, I’ll come. Just let me get dressed.” He was still wearing the clothes he had slept in, which he definitely should not wear in public. His wardrobe right now was a strange combination of shirts he had been given, and sweatshirts he had stolen from around the tower. He probably should go shopping at some point, but the thought of being inside a store and having to interact with retail people was not one he enjoyed. 

Steve gave him an awkward thumbs up, driving Bucky to laughter as he closed the door. 

Bucky began to change into more presentable clothes, and was regretting his decision to  
join Natasha and Steve. He wouldn’t mind going with just Steve, but Natasha may have just figured something else and Bucky didn’t know her well enough to know how she would deal with this situation. He pulled on a baseball cap and left his room after trying to calm his nerves to no avail. He walked into the main room where Natasha and Steve were already waiting, Steve holding a folded red and white tablecloth. 

“Hey Bucky,” she called, smiling at him more today than she had since he got here. “Ready to go?”

He nodded, not addressing her new behaviour. To be frank, it sort of terrified him. He just stood next to Steve, trying to be normal, whatever that actually meant. How was one supposed to act when they had tried to murder all the people they now called friends and were now once again being confronted with feelings they had clearly been avoiding for over eighty years? Especially when those feelings were towards one’s best friend? There was no rule book for potentially gay ex brainwashed assassins with decade long crushes on supersoldiers and Bucky was really starting to wish there was. 

The park wasn’t too far away, and the three were able to make some mild conversation, though it remained mostly between Natasha and Steve. Bucky mainly marveled at the city like he always did, but how could he not? He did miss the way it used to look, the simplicity of it all, but he did enjoy all the lights, the busyness of it. 

They arrived at the park, where Steve pulled out the tablecloth and lay in on the grass. They sat down, and Bucky amused himself by watching a toddler chase some pigeons nearby. 

“You so wanna be that kid right now,” Steve whispered from just behind Bucky’s ear, having snuck up on him while he wasn’t paying attention. 

Bucky laughed at Steve’s notion, trying his best not to be awkward after feeling Steve’s breath brush against his neck and hoping Steve didn’t notice him shudder. “Oh definitely,” he played along, “however it seems socially unacceptable for a grown man to chase pigeons in a park these days.” He distinctly chose not to face Steve, feeling the temperature on his cheekbones abnormally high, even with the sun. 

“Nah, that's not fair,” Natasha argued. “I don’t think we should exclude our own birds from the realm of acceptability. Sam’s basically a pigeon in that bird suit anyway.”

This broke Steve, and if he hadn’t been sitting down already, he probably would’ve doubled over. To the dismay of Clint and Sam, bird jokes were the best received among the Avengers. “I’m gonna go get us subs from over there,” he said after he calmed down, gesturing towards a food truck across the park as he got up. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

After Steve was out of earshot, Natasha scooted closer to him. “You’re blushing again,” she said, giving him a light shove. 

“Am not,” he argued, refusing to face her. “Maybe I’m sunburnt already.”

“Suppressing your feelings isn’t gonna do anything,” she teased. 

“I’m gonna kill you, Natasha.”

“Don’t worry,” she assured, “I won’t tell him.”

Bucky didn’t realize how much relief he would feel hearing those words. He finally looked back at Natasha, blush still hot on his cheeks but eyes serious. “Thanks.”

“However,” she said, smirking. “That doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try and convince you to tell him.” 

“Natasha…” he groaned. 

“Name one reason you shouldn’t,” she prodded. 

“Just one?” he asked, rolling his eyes. “How about I lose my best friend and my sleeping situation becomes extremely awkward?”

“Okay fair, but what if you gain a boyfriend, and your sleeping situation gets a lot better?” she argued back. 

“Natasha…” Bucky felt his face growing red again at her implication.

“Like a lot better.”

“Natasha!” 

“Like a lot, a lot.”

“Stop!” he yelled a bit too loud and a few heads turned in response. He ducked his head, not meeting any eyes. 

“You’re blushing again,” Natasha stated, very matter-of-factly. 

“I hate you,” he muttered. 

“Don’t worry, there are a lot of teenage girls who share your feelings towards the Captain over there,” she consoled, knowing it would do nothing to actually console him. Bucky made the very bad decision of noticeably biting his cheek when she mentioned Captain America and before Bucky could hide it, she asked in a hushed tone, “Oh my god, wait, does the whole Captain America thing turn you on?” 

Before Bucky could stutter what would be a very unbelievable response, their conversation was interrupted. 

“I got food!” Steve called from a safe distance away, far enough that Bucky was sure he hadn’t heard. Heat still in his cheeks, Bucky fell backwards and did the only thing he could think of in the moment, he log rolled away from the conversation. God, he really was a child. “What’s up with him?” Steve asked when he reached the blanket. 

“I don’t know,” Natasha lied. “Your friend is weird.”

“He sure is,” Steve smiled, sitting down as Bucky rolled to a stop. “Wouldn’t want him any other way.”

\-------------------------------

A few days passed since what Bucky had dubbed the log roll incident and Natasha had kept to her word. Neither of them had given any hints that might cause Steve to suspect something, and Bucky liked to believe he was getting better at hiding his emotions, which probably wasn’t going to be an accomplishment he told his therapist about. She probably wouldn’t find it as much a success as he did. 

It also helped that Steve had been on a mission with Tony and Clint since that night so it’s not like he’d had the chance to be awkward. His next chance to be awkward around Steve came around two in the morning, when the quinjet landed and Steve returned to the tower. The quinjet wasn’t the quietest of vehicles, and Bucky wasn't the heaviest of sleepers so he woke up to purr of the engine as it landed outside. 

He left his room, not bothering or not remembering to put on a shirt before he walked out in just his sweatpants. He found the three men making their way through the main room and towards the kitchen, obviously starving. 

“Hey, what’s up,” he asked, announcing his presence to them more than actually asking them how they were. He didn’t want to startle them, they were probably still on edge. 

“Hey Buck,” Steve said, his voice hushed, as to not wake everyone else. When Steve turned to face him under the low light, he noticed a bruised ring around his eye, the trace of a punch to the face. 

“Holy shit, Steve,” Bucky said, making his way to the freezer to grab a bag of ice. 

“I’m alright, Buck,” he assured as he got up on the counter. As Bucky got closer, he noticed tears in the sleeves of his suit, with cuts underneath.

Clint and Tony both grabbed granola bars from the cupboard, unfazed by Steve’s bruised face and seemingly unfazed by Bucky’s reaction. They said their goodnights as Bucky rummaged around the freezer for more ice. 

“I’ll be alright,” Steve said again, when Bucky pressed a bag of ice to his under eye. He felt Steve flinch at the cold for a second. “I heal fast now anyway.”

“How’d you get all beat up and Tony and Clint got nothing,” Bucky asked, ignoring his statement about healing quickly. 

“Tony’s got the suit and Clint shoots from far away,” he answered. “I’m the one who gets the grunt work.” 

Bucky shook his head, though he had to admit, he felt more like himself than ever before when he pressed ice up against Steve’s face. Sure Steve was bigger now but he was still Bucky’s little Stevie. “This feels pretty familiar,” he said, moving the ice away from Steve’s eye for a second, before putting it back. 

“It’s been a while,” Steve smiled, a nostalgic smile smeared across his face. “Still can’t seem to stop getting in fights.” 

“Trashcan or vibranium, you still worry me out there,” he joked, moving the ice down to one of the cuts on Steve’s arm. 

“You worry about me, Buck?” Steve asked, giving him an inquisitive grin. It was happy, but there was a bit of disbelief in it. 

Bucky, realizing what he had just said, just looked down at his hands, where they were pressed against Steve’s arm. He felt heat rise to his cheeks, even though he pushed hard against it. Stop it, he told his body. It wasn’t even that romantic of a thing to say, don’t give it away. 

“Buck, you blushing?” Steve asked, more disbelief in his voice. 

Say something! his brain yelled at him. Great job. Now you look guilty!

“Bucky?” he questioned, reaching out towards Bucky and placing his hand on Bucky’s right shoulder. When Bucky kept his eyes down, Steve ran his hand up Bucky’s neck and towards his chin, forcing him to look up at him. Bucky’s face was so pink and he could do nothing about it. He cursed his own blood, hand faltering from where it was holding the ice. 

“Buck…” Steve said in realization, eyes wide. It was all he said, but Bucky began to spiral in response. He was frozen, and time passed like someone had dropped all the clocks in jello. Slowly, Steve’s hand slipped around, back behind Bucky’s ear and into his hair. Bucky felt his blush cover his back, and he felt small, knowing that Steve now understood how crazy that motion made him feel. 

Steve slipped off the counter, brushing off Bucky’s hands and the ice. His other hand slipped into Bucky’s hair and pulled him towards him. Before Bucky could actually register what was happening, there was a pair of soft lips on his. His eyes fell shut and he reached up and wrapped his arms around Steve, kissing him back with every feeling he had hidden since the 30’s. Steve’s lips were addictive, Bucky finding himself perfectly content with staying here for as long as possible, and ferociously hoping and begging that this wasn’t some weird fever dream. 

Steve pulled back for a moment, and Bucky found himself staring right into those blue eyes he loved so much. He’d never imagined his first kiss with Steve being anything like that, well he’d never thought Steve would ever be taller than him for one thing, but it was so perfect. “Buck,” Steve sighed before placing his lips back on Bucky’s, stronger and more intoxicating than before. 

Steve pulled his hands out of Bucky’s hair, his right one making its way down his bare back and towards his ass. Bucky made a squirmy moan into the kiss, not exactly cute in its own right, but Steve’s response made it clear that he thought it was the most adorable thing in the world. In one motion, Steve lifted Bucky, turning them around and placing him on the kitchen counter. When they pulled away, all Bucky could think about was what Natasha had said earlier that week. That suit did things to him. 

“You blush,” Steve stated through heavy breaths, clearly just as intoxicated by the kiss as Bucky was. “A lot.”

“Yeah,” Bucky responded, giving into the full body blush and letting his body do whatever. “I’ve been told.”


End file.
